Sacrifice and Protection
by sabaq
Summary: Lightning's emotional journey over the span of the three games. One shot.


Lightning, or Claire for that matter had never given much thought to the future, much less any relationships, she had always been concerned with protecting Serah and excelling in the Guardian Corps. So when she kissed Fang the night before taking down Orphan it had meant more than just one simple yet heated kiss, it meant everything. Nothing short of love would cause an inexperienced Claire to let her barriers down with someone.

No promises were made that night, no declarations of love, only raw emotion and hope for the future. Fang loved Lightning too, but she had a little more foresight as to what the next day would bring and didn't want to hurt Claire should the worst happen. For Fang love was keeping those she cared about from pain.

It would be inaccurate to say the worst happened the next day, self sacrifice is one of the greatest displays of love humans can have for one another so for a brief moment Lightning was happy. They had achieved their goal; Serah and Dajh were back. Yet the joy was fleeting when she realized the implications of that crystal pillar on the horizon. Fang and Vanille were gone again. It didn't matter that they themselves had just stepped out of crystal stasis defying the odds, all Lightning could see was the permanence of the sacrifice Fang and Vanille had made and in that moment she lost all hope.

She began to cry, not just a few tears Claire began to sob uncontrollably. The kiss from the night before had loosed the seal on her emotions and she just didn't care about what the others thought anymore. They had been through everything together, they were family. Falling to the ground she shoved her fist into the dirt, the only word out of her mouth was sobbed 'Fang'. Serah knelt down putting her arms around Claire.

It was in that moment that Etro took pity on Lightning. The warrior was broken and nothing in the immediate future could fix her brokenness. Everything went silent. Lightning couldn't even hear the sound of her own sobbing anymore, then a flash of light and she disappeared. Whisked away.

Only Serah remembered what really happened.

For Lightning the only reprieve from her grief was in the fact that she was too busy fighting Caius to let it consume her. Slowly that grief went away and as Lightning realized she was no longer human and was replaced with hope, her life would be lengthened and she might be reunited with Fang after all, and Serah would be safe.

But Serah wasn't safe and the events that led to her death had left Lightning with a hole in her chest filled with grief and guilt. So she made a deal with Bhunivelze that would bring Serah back. With that goal in mind she set out and it was at the most unexpected little outpost in the middle of the desert when she least expected it she ran into Fang. In hindsight Fang leading a group of bandits was only natural. Before Lightning even spoke she closed the distance between them to kiss Fang and it was everything she had hoped it would be, raw and full of emotion. They picked up right where they had left off without missing a beat. Slowly breaking the kiss Fang wrapped her arms around Claire pulling her close. It's at this point where she would have said something but her emotions were welling up inside her. Fang knew, she could read Lightning better than anyone. They stood there foreheads resting against each other enjoying each others company for the first time in forever. It was Fang who finally broke the silence and spoke the words Claire had been waiting hundreds of years to hear. 'I love you.' And Claire replied with the only thing she ever could, 'I love you too'.

No matter what the future would hold for them, they had each other now and they were determined to never let that go so they didn't. They managed to beat the odds and fight their fate once again.

Finally achieving the happily ever after they deserved they would go onto build a life together, get married, with just enough adventure to keep things interesting.


End file.
